On July 5, 2021, Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) together with the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs (ECFA) held a round table on challenges and prospects of Russia-Egypt cooperation. A joint report by the RIAC and ECFA "Political Risks for Russian-Egyptian Cooperation in North Africa" was presented within the framework of the round table.
Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Director General, and Ezzat Saad El Sayed, ECFA Director, made opening remarks.
On July 5, 2021, Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) together with the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs (ECFA) held a round table on challenges and prospects of Russia-Egypt cooperation. A joint report by the RIAC and ECFA "Political Risks for Russian-Egyptian Cooperation in North Africa" was presented within the framework of the round table.
Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Director General, and Ezzat Saad El Sayed, ECFA Director, made opening remarks.
The event consisted of two sessions.
Session I: Russian-Egyptian Bilateral Cooperation: Prospects and Challenges
The first session was devoted to the issues of the current state of Russian-Egyptian relations, economic ties and military-technical cooperation; the positions of the two countries on regional and international problems, the policy of external actors in the Middle East; challenges and prospects for Russian-Egyptian relations.
Speakers:
Alexey Vasiliev, Honorary President of the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the RAS, Member of RIAC Scientific Council.
Ezzat Saad El Sayed, Director, Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs
Marwan Badr, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Arab Republic of Egypt (retired), ECFA Expert
Nataliya Zaiser, Chair of the Board, Africa Business Initiative, RIAC Expert
Alaa El Hadidi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Arab Republic of Egypt (retired), ECFA Expert
Moderator - Grigory Lukyanov, Deputy Department Head, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, National Research University Higher School of Economics, RIAC Expert.
Session II: Towards Stability in the Middle East and North Africa? Views from Moscow and Cairo
In the second session, speakers discussed political risks, sustainable development of water and food resources in North Africa, unresolved conflicts and cross-border threats to regional security in the region.
Speakers:
Shaima Majeed, Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University
Nikolay Surkov, Senior Research Fellow, Middle East Center, Institute of World Economy and International Relations after E. Primakov (IMEMO) RAS, Associate Professor at the Oriental Studies Department (MGIMO), RIAC Expert
Mohammed Badr El-Din Zayed, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Arab Republic of Egypt (retired), ECFA Expert
Dmitry Tarasenko, RIAC Expert
Moderator - Mohamed Kamal, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute for Arab Research and Development, Cairo University.
Ruslan Mamedov, RIAC Program Manager, and Ezzat Saad El Sayed, ECFA Director, spoke at the closing ceremony and identified areas for further cooperation between the two organizations.
